Sunday, September 27, 2015

2015 Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin' Festival Results

Updated:

Hi all,

Here are the corrected results, sorry about the confusion.

The 7th annual Vermont Pumpkin Chuckin festival is over and here are the results of the trebuchet and chili contests. We had a record 26 teams in the trebuchet contest and 4 in the chili cookoff. The distances for the lightweight and middleweight divisions are scaled up to what they would throw if they were 10 feet tall. Trophies awards to the top three in each division. Winner of each division get $50 prize. The winners of each division compete directly against each other for grand best overall design prize and gets an extra $50.

An observation on this year’s chuckin winner; this is the 1st time a Heavyweight won the overall contest since the Middleweight Open category was created. This proves that it is possible to win with a big machine, even thought it requires a lot more effort.

Another observation, this is the first time we’ve seen a Merlin type trebuchet. The merlin is unique in that it has 5 links creating a cam which the weight pulls a wire around. This allows it to be much more efficient in using nearly all of the available energy stored in the counterweight into throwing the projectile. It also has a very clever way of throwing where the arm is tilted way back beyond vertical and the pumpkin is actually sitting on the arm before it fires and it loops thru the frame without the pumpkin hitting the ground, giving the machine an extremely long (almost 320 degree) throwing motion. This reduces the stress on the arm and frame, allowing more weight to be devoted to the counterweight.

And lastly, a two brand-new clever tripod trebuchets appeared in the Middleweight Open and Lightweight Divisions; a father daughter combo I believe. The daughter dominated the Lightweight Division, winning by almost 200 feet and almost beating dad. I tried to see a similar trebuchet on the internet and couldn’t find anything. Great invention!